2D Stress Tensor for 4D Gravity

Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Sep 22;119(12):121601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.121601. Epub 2017 Sep 22.

Abstract

We use the subleading soft-graviton theorem to construct an operator T_{zz} whose insertion in the four-dimensional tree-level quantum gravity S matrix obeys the Virasoro-Ward identities of the energy momentum tensor of a two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT_{2}). The celestial sphere at Minkowskian null infinity plays the role of the Euclidean sphere of the CFT_{2}, with the Lorentz group acting as the unbroken SL(2,C) subgroup.